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Bill Frisell: Never Ending Revelations
by Ian Patterson
Touchstone Albums Picks is a new column from All About Jazz that invites artists to talk about the albums that have moved and inspired them and perhaps in some way informed their own music. In celebration of the publication of Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer (Faber & Faber, 2022), Irish journalist Philip Watson's definitive biography of the Denver guitarist, AAJ invited Bill Frisell to kick off the series. What follows is an extract, largely unedited, of a conversation where ...
Continue ReadingChes Smith: Interpret It Well
by Troy Dostert
Ches Smith is a drummer who can make an immediate impact in a number of ways. His work as a sideman with everyone from John Zorn to Ben Goldberg to Tim Berne is ample evidence of his rhythmic range. But his own projects are just as inventive, from the punkish mania of Hammered (Clean Feed, 2013) to the re-imagined Haitian Voudou on 2021's Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic). If there is a common thread, it is probably found in Smith's ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell As Leader: A Beginner's Guide
by Ian Patterson
To celebrate the publication of Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer (Faber & Faber, 2022), Irish journalist Philip Watson's definitive biography of the Denver guitarist, All About Jazz presents this beginner's guide to Frisell's discography as leader. Half a dozen other albums could easily have made the list, but these selections attempt primarily to highlight the range of Frisell's music and his evolution as both a guitarist and a composer. Bill Frisell's debut as leader, In Line, (ECM, 1983) was ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer
by AAJ Staff
The following is a revised excerpt from “Chapter 20: Frislandia" of Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer by Philip Watson (Faber & Faber, 2022). Bill Frisell's music has always, right from the beginning, raised critical questions about definition and classification, about the very nature of genre. What is it that Frisell is playing, and how might we begin to describe it? The most common descriptor, of course, is that Frisell is a jazz guitarist. 'I don't know ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer
by Ian Patterson
Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer Philip Watson 560 Pages ISBN: 978-0571361663 Faber & Faber 2022 The great guitar anti-hero Bill Frisell has dreamt of perfect music--an otherworldly blend of unimaginably beautiful sounds. It may be a just a dream, but that hasn't stopped the Denver-raised musician from constantly searching, for striving for this ideal. And on an inspired night he can get close...for a while. For Frisell it is the journey, as this, the ...
Continue ReadingGui Duvignau: Baden
by Dan Bilawsky
Gui Duvignau has had Baden Powell's sound in his sights for some time now. Born in France and raised in Brazil, the rising-star bassist delved deeply into that legendary Brazilian guitarist's work at the behest of several six-stringer friends. And as he studied guitar too, Duvignau came under the sway of Powell's advanced harmonic concepts, personalized technique and keen ability to skirt easy categorization by blending classical stylings, jazz sensibilities and a broad mixture of Brazilian traditions. Having then performed ...
Continue ReadingSkúli Sverrisson With Bill Frisell: Strata
by Ian Patterson
A meeting of minds, of hearts and of souls. Strata may be the first recording of the duo of Icelandic bassist Skuli Sverrisson and guitarist Bill Frisell, but so attuned are the musicians to each other's wavelengths, and so spellbinding their common language, that you could be forgiven for thinking they had played in this format for donkey's years. Originally a limited edition, vinyl-only release in 2018, Strata is now available for the first time on digital platforms, which is ...
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